State Comptroller Mattaniho Engelman today (Monday) publishes an audit report on a variety of issues, including the “one soul” reform and Israel’s preparedness for earthquakes. The reports were written before 7.10 – but their publication date was postponed due to the massacre and the war. According to the auditor, he decided to publish the reports now in view of the urgency of correcting the deficiencies: the report on the “One Soul” reform, which deals with disabled IDF and security forces living with post-trauma, gained special importance and urgency due to the war.
From the report on the “One Soul” reform, it emerged that only about a third of the budget designated for the “One Soul” reform reached the disabled in the IDF. In 2022, the implementation rates of the added budgets were low, as was the rate of those eligible who exercised their entitlement. Out of a budget of 177 million NIS Only 49 million NIS were realized.
IDF disabled protest, two years ago | Photo: N12
For example, the report details, only about 7% of the IDF disabled population with a head injury or mental injury exercised their right to mental health care for family members. Only about 6% exercised their right to tutoring services for children, and only about 1% of those recognized as IDF disabled “Following post-trauma, they exercised their right to a service dog. The reason for this, according to the auditor, is a lack of service dogs and a training period of about a year and a half for the dogs.
The State Comptroller also noted that the enshrinement of the IDF’s disabled benefits rule in legislation has been delayed for 18 years, and it continues to be delayed even after the reform. Additional failures have arisen in regards to the response to those dealing with post-trauma as well as in the formation’s ICT systems. According to Engelman, the failure to complete the tasks in these areas Harms the rehabilitation division’s ability to significantly improve the treatment and rehabilitation provided to the disabled in the IDF.
Demonstrators in front of the rehabilitation department, after Itzik Saidian set himself on fire Photo: N12
Comptroller Engelman distributed a questionnaire among the disabled in the IDF regarding satisfaction with the rehabilitation department at the Ministry of Defense. The average satisfaction score of all respondents with the attitude and service was 53 out of 100. 28% answered that they were not at all satisfied or only slightly satisfied. It also emerged that many are not aware of the basket of benefits they and their families deserve.
28% answered that they are not at all satisfied or slightly satisfied with the rehabilitation department in the Ministry of Defense Photo: Ministry of Defense
In addition, the State Comptroller’s Office conducted an audit on the preparedness of the State of Israel for earthquakes. The report stated that a strong earthquake in Israel is a matter of time, but the audit revealed that even after 5 years since the previous report – the necessary actions to improve preparedness have not been promoted. According to Engelman, the country is still not prepared as required for an earthquake event.
The Comptroller’s Office noted that as of the end of 2021, only 3.5% of the structures that require strengthening have actually been strengthened. Also, 60% of hospitals are not earthquake resistant, and only about 5% of educational institutions have been strengthened, or are in the process of being strengthened.
A building in Tiberias that was damaged by an earthquake, this year Photo: David Cohen, Flash 90
Comptroller Engelman said upon the publication of the report: “As I have already announced, the main work of the State Comptroller’s office for 2024 will be in the form of a critique of the failures and shortcomings that preceded the Simchat Torah massacre on October 7. We will also conduct a critique of the government’s response, in a variety of areas, to the citizens of the country after the outbreak of the war. However, three months after the events of the massacre, I found it appropriate to publish incisive audit reports on important issues at hand, in order to motivate the correction of deficiencies in these areas.”
Engelman added: “Although their preparation was completed before the war, these reports deal with issues that are also relevant to the soldiers fighting in Gaza and the northern border and to the civilians in the rear. Such is, for example, the report on the implementation of the ‘one soul’ reform for the disabled in the IDF. It is of critical importance to immediately correct the deficiencies that arise in it – for the sake of the thousands of people wounded in body and soul since 7/10, for the fighters on the front at these moments and for the sake of all the disabled in the IDF.”
State Comptroller Matanyahu Engelman on a tour of the conflict line settlements in the north
The response of the Ministry of Defense: “We will study and implement the recommendations required in the auditor’s report to complete the ‘One Soul’ reform. Some of these actions have already been implemented in the last three months, during which the Rehabilitation Division is treating more than 4,000 war-wounded, with an emphasis on immediate treatment, removing bureaucratic barriers and proactive recognition of more than 90% of the injured already on the first day of hospitalization.”
“The rehabilitation department invested more than NIS 450 million, as part of the reform, to develop more than 90 new services. The reform changed and simplified the recognition process. The Rehabilitation Division began providing medical and psychological treatment upon submission of the application, transferred medical committees to rehabilitation hospitals, established the ‘In Good Hands’ center, which provides assistance in the recognition process at no cost and without the assistance of a lawyer, initiated alternative treatment frameworks, and more.”
“I found it appropriate to publish incisive audit reports on important issues at hand, in order to motivate the correction of the deficiencies.” Engelman Photo: Miriam Alster Flash 90
“The Ministry of Defense and the IDF Disabled People’s Organization are the ones who succeeded, after 18 years of stagnation, in enacting the first two chapters of the Disabled Persons Law last year – in the areas of housing and medical equipment, legislation that helps a lot in the war. The following chapters are being promoted these days, with the lessons of iron swords embedded in them, with the intention of bringing them to a first reading vote in the upcoming Knesset session. The completion of the legislation will make it possible to guarantee the rights of the disabled in the IDF in the fields of medicine, psychosocial and economic treatment and the realization of the new rights in the reform.”
“Since the launch of the reform, and even more so in the last three months, the workers of the Rehabilitation Division have been working day and night in order to provide the new and veteran disabled IDF with the best care and service. As evidence, the significant improvement in the satisfaction of the IDF disabled with the response given in the wing as indicated by the results of the government satisfaction survey. In relation to the survey presented in the auditor’s report, we believe that a reform of this magnitude should be examined over time. These days, the Ministry of Defense is working with the Ministry of Finance to get the wing the necessary tools to meet this important task, with an emphasis on a significant increase in personnel standards.”
The response of attorney Idan Kaliman, chairman of the IDF Disabled People’s Organization: “For years we have been crying out for the need for reform and in recent years for its immediate implementation, and encountering the bureaucratic wheels of the legislative procedures, while abandoning the wounded without providing immediate assistance for the existing deficiencies. Now we are being shown what a country at war looks like that behaves like a country in a sleepy routine. The tremendous surge of IDF wounded which arrives at our doorstep requires a Bezeq preparation in order to fundamentally correct the depth failures – both in the infrastructures of the Rehabilitation Division and in the Bezeq legislation. The government must fulfill its moral and ethical obligation to the wounded and pass a government decision already in the upcoming session, to implement the reform immediately even before it is passed in legislation – this is the order of the hour!”.
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